 Solution

Take the divergence of the proposed Ampère's law. Since the divergence of a curl vanishes identically, it implies $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{J}=0$. However, local charge conservation requires the continuity equationFor example, electric current entering a charging capacitor accumulates electric charge on its plates, so the charge density is time dependent. The proposed equation cannot describe that process.

From Gauss's law, $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{E}=\rho /{ϵ}_0$. Thus $\nabla \cdot ({ϵ}_0{\partial }_t\mathbf{E})={\partial }_t\rho$, which supplies precisely the missing divergence. Adding the displacement current density gives the Ampère-Maxwell equation:Its divergence now yields the correct continuity equation. Through a fixed surface, the associated displacement current is $I_D={ϵ}_{0}d{\Phi }_E/dt$, where ${\Phi }_E$ is the electric flux. In a vacuum capacitor gap, this equals the conduction electric current charging the plates, even though no charges cross the gap. Charge conservation fixes the required divergence of the correction; by itself it does not exclude adding a further divergence-free vector field.